Networked appliances are generally known in the art. By way of example, U.S. Published Application No. 2011/0060553 describes a home appliance that functions to output product information as a sound signal. A service center remotely performs fault diagnosis of the home appliance by receiving the sound signal, detecting the product information from the sound signal, and checking the state of the home appliance using diagnostic data that is also included in the product information.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 7,340,414 describes a refrigerator capable of transmitting and receiving information over a network and having an automatic food ordering function. Residual amounts of food articles stored in containers of the refrigerator are measured through sensors installed in the containers and then displayed on a screen of a display unit, thereby enabling a user to easily recognize the residual amounts of the food articles stored in the refrigerator without opening the door of the refrigerator. The measured residual amounts of the food articles are compared with minimum proper amounts of the food articles preset by the user. In the case where the measured residual amount of a specific one of the food articles is smaller than the minimum proper amount of the specific food article, the specific food article is automatically ordered and delivered.
Still further, U.S. Pat. No. 7,136,940 describes an Internet refrigerator and a Web pad for operating the same. The Web pad is detachably mounted on the Internet refrigerator, and transmits and receives data to/from the Internet refrigerator on the basis of a remote display protocol. The Web pad is a client Web pad detachably mounted on an outer surface of the Internet refrigerator. The client Web pad is adapted to receive a display signal transmitted from the Internet refrigerator and output the received display signal externally. A server control unit is provided to transmit the display signals to the client Web pad on the basis of the remote display protocol such that data processed in the Internet refrigerator is displayed through the client Web pad. Application programs and multimedia data are driven on the basis of the server control unit, resulting in a reduction in work-load on the client Web pad.
Yet further, U.S. Pat. No. 6,549,818 describes a cooking appliance, such as a stove or oven, which has the ability to download cooking recipes from the Internet. The recipes include a food list and pre-cooking directions which are displayed to a user. The recipes also include a cooking temperature schedule which is used by the temperature controller of the food-heating unit to automatically assist in heating the appliance in accordance with the recipes.
While such exemplary networked appliances work for the described purposes, a need exists for improved networked appliances which provide a multitude of advantages not yet seen in the art.